William Jefferson appeal should be a priority for U.S. Supreme Court, his attorneys say

Attorneys for former Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, are pulling out all the stops to get the U.S. Supreme Court to look at his corruption conviction and 13-year prison sentence. The lawyers argue Jefferson was acting as a private businessman, trying to influence foreign officials in western Africa on behalf of business executives who were paying him. Prosecutors, and ultimately the jury that convicted him on 11 of 16 charges, concluded he was acting as a congressman during his trips abroad to secure deals for the businesses that were paying him.

View full sizeThe Times-PicayuneFormer New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson

But there's more to the Jefferson appeal. His attorneys said with prosecutors and the FBI putting more resources into combating government corruption, there should be a "priority" for the high court to resolve the issue of the official duties of a congressman in connection with bribery statutes.

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who followed the case closely, said he believes "the petition raises a serious and unsettled question of the standard for the bribery statute. What constitutes a 'settled practice' is remarkably unsettled if you look across the circuits. ... The standard set forth by Judge T.S. Ellis was in my view dangerously vague. The jury was given little guidance on the standard and to this day I am not sure how it is objectively defined."